Old made new

Flagler senior Sharon Haas' two bedroom apartment in downtown St. Augustine has a history of reporters and teletype machines, not kegs and video games.

The apartment, located in the old St. Augustine Record building, was for many years part of the newspaper's newsroom.

"It's neat to be living in a building that has so much history behind it," Haas said. "The building has a lot of memories for a lot of people in the city. It's nice to have it preserved."

When The Record sold the building in 2003, it was a dump. Termites had caused extensive damage, the building was crowded and dirty, the restrooms smelled and the staff was happy to move to its new, fancy building at the intersection of routes 312 and 207.

The new owners saw beyond the mess. What the two lifelong friends saw was a beautiful part of St. Augustine's history waiting to be discovered.

Instead of tearing it down, Howard Davis and Guy Batsel restored the building, keeping its structure in tact, and turned what were a warren of cubicles into apartments.

Preservation in mind

Batsel and Davis were born in St. Augustine. They met when they were in elementary school and have remained friends throughout the years.

The two are working together to see that the city's historic buildings are restored, not torn down.

"All of us who grew up in St. Augustine 40 years ago have a mindset to preserve St. Augustine," Batsel said. "When you grow up here, keeping it the way it was is a little more significant."

The two got to work when the old St. Augustine Record building on Cordova Street went up for sale.

Davis, who owns Howard Davis Associates Architects, called up longtime buddy Batsel, a retired lawyer, and asked if he wanted in on plans to restore the building.

"It became a labor of love," Batsel said of the restoration. "When Howard called me, it was a challenge and we made it happen."

Challenges abound

Calling it a "challenge" might have been an understatement.

The building, which Henry Flagler built in 1906, had several problems, including termites.

"There were horror stories where you had to cover your coffee cups during certain times of the year because the termites were swarming falling into your coffee cups," said Ronnie Hughes, who was the last Record publisher in the old building. Hughes retired on Jan. 1.

"It was kind of like walking into a 1950s newsroom," Hughes said. "It had all the excitement and chatter of an old newspaper plant."

The building, which is surrounded by designated historic districts, was never included in them.

For the news owners, the building's history far overshadowed the problems.

Batsel and Davis decided if they were going to restore the building, they'd make sure it got the historic recognition it deserved.

Batsel said a lot of people don't realize that people like Martin Luther King Jr. visited the building and spent time in the editor's office.

To get approved as a national register building, the outside of the building had to remain exactly the same and the inside structure had to be exposed.

A few surprises

For two years, the new owners worked on turning the building into a revamped apartment complex.

"Structurally, there were a lot of surprises inside," Davis said.

Some surprises included problems with the flooring and the need for a new roof.

They had to remove the wood flooring on the ground level to pour in concrete and tried to salvage the wood floors on the second level but much of it was damaged.

Brick walls that were once covered with layers of paint were stripped to look as close to they originally did as possible.

One challenge for Batsel and Davis was that part of the building was constructed in 1906 and the addition was done in 1925.

When restoration wrapped up in April of 2005, the building looked brand new.

It now features 18 apartments, ranging from one to four bedrooms.

The old staircase was kept in place but was restored to look brand new. The third floor, which was once used as a newspaper storage room, is now a loft.

Batsel and Davis worked with Paul Weaver of Historic Properties Inc. and in April of 2006 the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The lifelong friends say they have their hands full with the property, but that doesn't mean they aren't looking for their next project.